Back in 1987, I bought an 86 GSXR-750 and searched the shops for boots, and gloves to match the Black, Red and White paint scheme. I found a (looked nice at the time) pair of AGV Prexport Boots for about $100 and tried on 13 or 14 different gloves (one at a time of course) The gloves ranged from $29.95 Motoports, to $120 . Cash was tight so I got the cheap AGV boots, but after back to back comparisons with the other gloves on the market, I splurged and got the $120 . As it turns out, the AGV Boots were overpriced at $100 (total junk) and the Gloves were worth at least double what I paid. I used those gloves for several years, but eventually moved on to various other makes of glove. Invariably, about a week after buying some other manufacturers gloves, I would start to fondly remember those old . I suppose I didn't have the intelligence to search out a pair or order them direct, so they remained a pleasant memory. Last fall I was at Willow Springs and had a booth set up..... Bingo! instant heaven... I bought a pair of thier new $250 GP Hyper Gloves. The Hypers are a lot like thier GPR II glove (see the link at the bottom of the Jacket article) with the addition of an outer 1/2 glove that contains heavy padding. The reason for putting the heavy padding on the outer glove is because they don't restrict movement as much, as if they were sewn directly into the glove on your hand. These gloves have that same hard to describe " Feel" as the ones I had 15 years ago, but offer all of the latest safety features. Though I would have paid much more for these gloves, the rep even knocked off $50. In my humble opinion, these are the finest gloves in the world. If you haven't tried on a pair of properly fitting , do yourself a favor and find some. I know that I will not stray again.... from now on I'm going to stick to . You DO get what you pay for.

I've considered several times replacing my old leathers for the synthetic equivalent, as the leathers are neither particularly waterproof nor very warm in winter, and tend to cook me in summer. However, the two things that put me off are that most of the reasonably good quality gear available in NZ is quite pricey, and the jackets all seem to be designed for the Michelin Man. I don't really want to wear a parachute on my back, so why don't they make the jackets slimmer fitting ? Surely it would be easier to manufacture several different fits for each chest size, than to add extra cinches on the arms etc. to stop them billowing in the wind??